Bye Bye Brain review

You know what they say about zombie games: you spend ages waiting around for one to arrive and then a horde show up at once. Actually, that may have been buses, but the point still stands - the Zune Marketplace, as with all mobile games portals, is slowly being invaded by the living dead.

Shambling out into the harsh reviewing spotlight this week is Bye Bye Brain, a WP7 indie title from Plain Concepts Game Studio that promises to offer a unique spin on another tired troupe that is tower defense.

As with all tower defense titles, the aim is to prevent waves of enemies from reaching a ‘home’ area, which in this case takes the form of a radio broadcast station protected by a flimsy gate. To stop this from happening, the player has to deploy a number of people (Bye Bye Brain’s equivalent of towers) in their path to slow them down.

These zombie slaying protagonists include a shop assistant (complete with cricket bat) inspired by the film, Shawn of the Dead, a dead-eye cop armed with a pistol, and a Kentucky-chicken throwing server.

Their weapons can be upgraded up to three times during the course of the game, using the money that starts rolling in as the heads roll off. Each upgrade alters both the appearance and application used by the chosen protagonist, with the humble cricket bat-wielding shop assistant eventually transforming into a menacing ninja of death.

It’s the humour and sharp presentation of Bye Bye Brain that first separates it from the horde of me-too tower defense games. From the amusing intro movie detailing mobile users’ descent into zombiedom, to the characters comparing the Apocalypse to Reading, there’s never a moment where the game takes itself too seriously.

We do wish that more time was spent tightening up the controls, though. The inability to undo character placements is a frustration we can live with, but the chaingun you can use to mow the zombies down yourself is horribly awkward to use.

Activated by turning your phone upside-down, which led to us dropping the handset more than once during our time with the game, the chaingun is your special ‘last line of defense’ option that switches the game into a first-person viewpoint high up on the broadcast tower.

Rather than use a joystick, you have to tilt your handset to aim and shake it rapidly to fire, which is disorientating, confusing, and resulted in us dropping our handset (again). It’s a nice idea, but could have been better implemented.

This criticism also applies to the mini-game that occurs when you wish to upgrade a character for the final time Consisting of a rhythm-action game where you tap bullet holes in a zombie’s head in rhythm, it moves so quickly that half the time you don’t even get a chance to see what to do before it’s over for another wave.

Those looking for something a little different from the norm will no doubt enjoy Bye Bye Brain. The unique humour, sharp presentation, and original slant on a well-worn theme is worth checking out, even if some of its controls could do with bit more brains behind them.